TSA Misses 70% Of Fake Weapons But That's An Improvement

TSA agents work at the security checkpoint at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport on March 14, 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

When does a 70% failure rate actually represent an improvement? When we are talking about the efforts of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to detect weapons at airport checkpoints.

Undercover investigators working for the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) managed to sneak fake guns, knives and explosives through checkpoints earlier this year, getting the mock weapons through a depressing 70% of the time. The unclassified summary noted “We identified vulnerabilities with TSA's screener performance, screening equipment, and associated procedures.”

The exact failure rate is unclear, because the numbers were released in a closed House Homeland Security Committee hearing, but CBS reported a failure rate of “more than 70” while ABC was told that an 80% failure estimate was “in the ballpark.” Whatever the exact number, Michael McCaul, (R-Tex) chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said it was “disturbing.”

But in the world of government airport security, missing 70% is apparently an improvement over a similar test two years earlier, when the “hi-tech” equipment and the people manning it failed to detect fake weapons 95% of the time.

Some idea of the magnitude of the task being faced by the TSA, with whatever degree of success, can be gathered from Commissioner David Pekoske’s statement before the committee. In 2016 “our Transportation Security Officers screened more than 760 million passengers and more than 2 billion carry-ons and checked bags at approximately 440 airports nationwide.” TSA Federal Air Marshals “deployed on more than 250,000 domestic and international flights last year.” And not every TSA officer was human; over 1,000 canine teams patrolled 100 aviation, mass transit, and maritime transportation locations.

Even so, lawmakers are still concerned at the high rate of failure. “This agency that you run is broken badly, and it needs your attention,” Representative Mike Rogers told Pekoske, the recently-confirmed TSA administrator, at the hearing.

Pekoske touted that “TSA is exploring the use of 3D-imaging Computed Tomography systems [which] offer a more enhanced imaging platform over legacy AT x-ray systems and are a proven technology that has been used for screening checked baggage.” But committee members complained about the slow roll-out of this technology for checking carry-ons, as it’s only in use at Boston and Phoenix airports so far.